Known as the prophet
of modern architecture,
Louis Sullivan advocated creating buildings that
honestly mirrored their time, place and technology.
Unlike many architects of the period who copied the
past, Sullivan embraced the modern city. Using a
palette of modern techniques, he created
emotionally charged buildings that combined
beauty and function.

Sullivans designs
for high-rise skyscrapers in the
early 1890s freely expressed their soaring height
and the geometric grid of their internal metal
framework. The Auditorium Theatre, located on
Michigan Avenue at Congress Boulevard, was
completed with partner Dankmar Adler in 1889. On the Carson Pirie Scott
& Company store, completed in 1903, Sullivans distinctive ornamentation,
combining geometric and naturalistic forms, still attracts the attention
of State Street shoppers.

Louis Sullivan lived
in a house of his own design at 4575 South Lake Park Avenue between 1892
and 1896, during one of the busiest and most prolific periods of his career.
Damaged by fire and abandoned, the house was demolished in 1970.